Spiderman homecoming aftermath
by Laylea
Summary: SPOILERS FROM SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. "WHAT THE-" I didn't hear aunt May finish the sentence, I could only feel the icy panic rising inside me. When aunt May finds out who Peter really is, she agrees to allow him to continue to be spiderman, under one condition. He needed a partner, someone who he could protect, and someone who could protect him.
1. chapter 1

**I do not own spiderman or any marvel movie/creation or character!**

 **Please read description, it goes along with this first part! Enjoy and please comment if you feel so inclined!**

 **(Btw I've see this movie 4 times now, and I'm obsessed with it!)**

extended description

****spoilers for Spiderman homecoming!

"WHAT THE-"

I didn't hear aunt May finish the sentence, I could only feel the icy panic rising inside me. I quickly turned around, prepared with every, or any excuse to make her believe otherwise. But I didnt. We both sat there and stared at each other.

"Aunt May, I-"

"No." She cut me off, her voice was serious and curt. "Call Tony, and when he gets here, both of you meet me in the front room."

Edalyn. That's all I knew back then. Well, I should say that's all I remember, all that I was left with.

Then there was Natasha, she helped me. Raised me and trained me, gave meaning to the powers that I couldn't escape.

And though I thought I was doing fine with the quick online classes, a plan was devised. A partnership.

I am to protect Peter Parker and he is to protect

me. Pretty simple... right?

My tongue felt thick in my mouth as I sat with aunt May and Mr. Stark in the front room. Aunt Mays eyes were red and swollen, her hair a mess and her lips were pursed in a thin line. This was the day that I had never imagined to happen, the day I wasn't prepared for.

This was no game to May.

Even though that's how Tony decided treated it as. He was wearing his kitten shirt with casual jeans, and though they were inside, he had yet to remove his sunglasses. He was slouching into the couch and reading a magazine that any guardian would disapprove of.

After a solid 5 minutes of uncomfortable silence, Tony broke the ice, sitting up and slapping the magazine of the coffee table.

"Wow. Knew this day would come but not this soon, guess the kid isn't too bright when it comes to keeping identity under the radar; y'know, he's not really the quiet, discre-"

Then aunt May exploded

"Shut up. Do not go there with me right now!" May pointed to her chest angrily, "I am his Aunt, I deserve to know when he's in trouble, where he's at, how safe he is! And you! You knew this all along, and not a word to me about it! How-how.. how am I supposed to take care of him when he's flying around, blowing up buildings! Diving headfirst into danger bigger than him! Tony, these things are bigger than him! He's just a kid, Tony! A fifteen year old kid! And this 'internship' thing with him?! Behind my back?! I could've lost him so many times! I-I.."

Aunt Mays voice started getting shakier, and tears started forming in her eyes. She stood up and walked a couple feet away, her back towards Tony and I. I could hear her sobs as she whispered

"Haven't I lost enough?"

My stomach was in knots with guilt, I looked away from her, ashamed. She deserved better than this.

Tony's face was much more serious, his eyebrows knitted in thought. He glanced at me and then glanced back at Aunt May. He whipped off his sunglasses and patiently waited.

I started to say something, but Tony placed a hand on my shoulder and while looking at May, he shook his head.

We sat there for what seemed like hours. Then finally, aunt May walked back over and sat down, her face stained in tears but her eyes softer.

She looked at me and reached for my hand with both of hers, "Peter, I want you to be completely honest with me, no more lies and no more excuses." I looked reluctantly into her eyes and nodded.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only to open them again and look dead into mine.

"Why are you doing this. Was it all Mr. Starks idea, has he set you up? Was this all his plan? Is it for money? Fame? ... or is this something more?"

Her questions left me speechless, my mouth went dry and I glanced at Tony. He looked pretty offended, and seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts. I looked back at May. The last thing I wasted to tell her was the truth. The truth about uncle Ben and how I was involved when he died. We never talked about him anymore. We didn't even keep his pictures up, it just hurt her too much.

I took in a deep breath and opened my mouth, closed it again, and looked down. Then, without warning, the words started tumbling out. They were quick and jumbled.

I told her about uncle Ben, about what he said to me and how I got angry at him. I told her how I could've saved him. How I could've stopped the man who would later shoot him. I told her how I met Mr. Stark soon after, and about how he started mentoring me. I told her about the fight with cap, I told her about Toomes, about his illegal weapons and the danger he was. I told her about beating him, about how I knew I was more without the suit than I was with it. Lastly, I told her that I wouldn't stop. I couldn't stop. Every time I tried to, uncle Bens words would come back to me, urging me to be better

"with great power, comes great responsibility"

"And every time I save someone, every time I stop a shooting, or save kids from traffic, or even help the elderly find their way around town; I feel uncle Ben, I feel connected to him in a way and I- I just..."

Aunt May reached over and wiped the tears from my face. I hadn't even realized I was crying. Embarrassed, I look down and hurriedly wipe my tears.

May pulled me into a hug and I slumped against her, happy that she knew now.

"Peter, I'm not angry, I'm just- I just get scared that this is more than you can handle. I just want you to be safe, but I know I can't take this from you..."

Mays tone of voice changed from comforting to more serious and slightly cold.

could you give me and Mr. Stark a moment? him and I need to talk"

I force a smile and walk past May and then Tony, who whispers, "pray for me, kid."

"Eddalyn! You're not going fast enough! You're using your legs as a crutch! Try to imagine them lighter! faster!"

Natasha proved her point by taking out my legs from under me. I fell to the ground, only to summer-salt back to my feet, just in time to dodge a fearsome karate kick. I smirked to myself. I was pretty proud of that dodge, however I hadn't landed a single hit on her this whole practice. My smile faded at that, and as I thought of all the bruises I'd be dealing with tonight due to this training.

Natasha's practices were always rigorous.

When she first found me, My impression of her was that she was just a kind, sweet, tender hearted woman, who happened to know a couple of cool moves.

Boy, was I wrong.

Natasha went for my legs again, but this time I sprang over them. YES! I thought, finally I have the upper hand! My thought was cut short when I felt an arm wrapping around my waist from below, and with a dainty flip, she slammed my back to the ground. I gasped, the air completely being knocked out of me.

"You need to watch for things like that," she breathed "make sure that when you're dodging, your not dodging into a trap."

I hissed in pain and made a mental note to asksfor thicker padded mats in the training room.

"Natasha, could I have a word?"

I turned my head towards the source of the familiar voice. Tony Stark strolled into the practice room with an amused look on his face, wearing his ridiculous cat shirt. "I reckon training is going well Ed?"

I wince as I lift myself off the ground "it's going better than your 'wedding' plans, Stark"

His smirk fell off his face, only to return along with a chuckle. "Solid blow kid"

Everyone knew Tony had been pretty stressed about the whole engagement thing, especially since it was in the spur of the moment and him and penny really hadn't fully mended their relationship yet.

Tony turned back to Natasha with his 'business' face, "could I borrow you for a moment?"

Natasha nodded, then looked at me, "I want you to jog the floating platforms, focus on taking lighter steps. 20 times 'round."

I let myself fall back onto the mats, groaning in disgust.

Floating platforms were the worst, for two reasons, #1: running. #2: gracefully running

If I hit the platforms with any type of a clumsy manner, they would go off balance, causing me to fall... numerous times.

I watched Natasha and Tony leave the room in a hurry, Tony seemed a lot more serious than he usually was. This caused me to itch with curiosity.

"Oh, I'll practice on being quiet and 'light-on-my-feet'" I mumbled, as I loosely followed them out the door.

Once they stopped, I slipped behind a corner, straining my ears to hear their conversation. They seemed to be talking about Natasha's next mission

..."government wants you in Italy... suspicious... stone... the address and files on the mission are locked in the... need to leave by September..."

I couldn't hear the the whole conversation, but I heard enough to know Natasha was leaving again. My heart sank in my chest, I just wanted to go with her. I could help, I could-

My train of thoughts were cut off when I stumbled from leaning to far. So much for grace.

Natasha gave me a glare and Tony just smirked and said, "perfect timing. I have something I need to discuss with you as well."

Natasha looked at him with questions in her eyes but he just motioned us both to sit.

He took a deep breath and clapped his hands together, "you both remember Peter Parker, right?"

"Oh yeah!" I chimed in, "the boy you took to go up against cap, instead of taking me? Yeah, heard he's great!" I ended bitterly.

Natasha sighed, "We did that for your own good, we don't have a control or full understanding on your powers yet." She said it said with care, but for some reason it just irked me more, but I bit my lip and kept quiet.

"Ok well, Thanks for the interruption, I'll now continue. His lovely Aunt May has recently found out about his whole spiderman fling, due to his stupidity. However, she is going to let us continue to work with him... under one condition."

Stark looked at me and sighed tiredly, "Natasha is getting lots of missions, kid, and you gotta keep training. Miss May would like someone from the tower to watch him, be his guard, be his partner in crime... well I guess against crime, all that fun stuff. In other words, she doesn't want him fighting Queens crime alone.."

My stomach flipped. Panicked, I looked to Natasha for help, I didn't want to fight petty crimes. I wanted to go on missions, I wanted to do more, this is not what I've been training so hard for.

"I think that's perfect."

I could not believe my ears

"Wait, no! I-"

Natasha countered me "you need to fight crimes before we put you anywhere else. This is a perfect opportunity for you to fully develop your powers and abilities. I also think attending a school would be good for you."

"Attending a SCHOOL?! There is no way! I refuse, completely and absolutely reject. Tell lil Peter that he'll have to find himself a different babysitter, because it will not be me."

The next morning I was in a car with Happy, headed to Queens.

Anger boiled in me through out the whole drive there. A couple who worked for Stark were to work undercover as my Mom and Dad, and I was to attend Midtown high school. Not only that but the next day after arriving in queens, I'm to be introduced to Peter Parker and his stressed out Aunt.

I sank further into my seat. I should've just done my platform jogs.

 **Hey guys! So this is the first chapter, hope you like the plot ok! I will be explaining more of Edalyns back story in the next chapter! Please leave feedback, advice, and what not :) super excited to continue this story**

 **Let me know what you think!**

 **3 Lea**


	2. Chapter 2

**So thus far I've been writing in 1st person but I want to know if you guys think 2nd person would sound/be better. Please comment to let me know! Thanks!**

 **Oh and I added a longer description in the first beginning of the first chapter! Kinda explains some of the events that may seem to suddenly take place in the first chapter.**

Dinner with Aunt May was quiet again tonight. She still seemed to be in a bit of shock from the reveal two nights ago. Matter of fact, ever since the talk about me being spiderman, she had been quiet and pretty solemn. Except for the occasional questions she would ask; Questions like, "have you ever confronted armed men? Do the webs come from your skin or something else? Could the bite from the spider get infected?" And then there was Peters favorite, one that Ned asked when he first found out as well, "Do you... do you lay eggs?"

It took everything I had not to laugh when I answered Mays serious question.

Pulling my thoughts back to dinner, I decided to break the silence,

"Soooo has Tony gotten back to you about who my...'body guard' will be?"

I hated the thought of someone watching over me, but if that's what it took to make May happy, then that's what'll be done.

Aunt May straitened up and looked at me for the first time during dinner, "Yes, he didn't share specifics about who he is or what he can do, but he found someone who will be able to watch you, even while you're at school." She paused for a moment to take a bite of food, "Which I really appreciate since you've made it a habit to get yourself in trouble at school and ditch classes." She eyed me shaking her finger,"I won't have that anymore."

I sighed. This sucks. I litterally had a babysitter. "So when do we meet him?" I breathed out, trying to see positive in the situation.

"Tomorrow afternoon, while your at school, he and Happy are coming over to talk about the specifics. And don't you be moaning and groaning." Aunt May tossed her hair over her shoulder, giving me a half forced smirk "you should be so so grateful that you're getting partner for your dangerous endeavors." She said the "dangerous endeavors" in a dramatic voice. I could tell that she was doing her best to lighten the mood. She knew this was rough one me, but she had to do it because she cares.

I nodded half heartedly and shoved a big bite of mashed potatoes in my mouth, ending our conversation. I just hoped the 'body guard' cared as much as happy did, then I could really get my spiderman stuff done.

I woke up to Happy's, not very happy, voice as he grumbled, "Hey, Ed, we're here, help me grab your millions of bags." I opened my eyes and quickly snapped back to reality.

I was going to be a high schooler.

I practically gagged at the thought and lazily drug myself out of the car, helping Happy carry in a couple of my many suitcases.

I lifted my eyes to see a humble apartment complex which will be hard to get used to since I've been living in large buildings like the past two avenger towers. I sighed and hauled my suitcases with happy up to the 4th floor to the door that matched the #47 that was written on the paper.

I reached the top of the stairs before happy, and not wanting to knock without him, I waited. He was completely out of breath by the time he reached the top.

"Really, Ed? Five suitcases?"

"What? Five? I swear I only packed four!"

"Well four really isn't much better."

"Which one is-"

The couple must've heard our conversation from the inside because before we even knocked, the door flew open, silencing both Happy and I. The man who opened the door greeted us with a bright smile then turned to look at me

"Well you must be Edalyn!"

I plastered a smile on my face and managed a nod. The man looked like he was in his forties, he had frameless glasses and curly black hair. He was pretty short for a guy and was just about as tall as me.

"Well, I'm Brock Winstead, my wife is inside making dinner. Please, come in!"

I suddenly felt self conscious of all the suit cases I had, especially when it was such a small apartment.

I was taken out of my train of thoughts when I was suddenly embraced in a tight hug and rocked back and forth quickly. After a bit, a petite little blonde released me from the hug but kept her hands on my shoulders. Her eyes were a soft, dark brown and she smelled like vanilla ice-cream.

She pushed me back to get a good look at me and scanned me from my head, down to my toes and back up again

"Well arnt you just a vision! Look at those baby blue eyes!" She gasped, "and your hair! It's so long about beautiful! You're a lucky girl to be able to have naturally blonde hair like that." I thanked her and genuinely smiled, this woman gave me the sort of comfort and happy feelings that you would get from cute little grannies giving out cookies; however, like Mr. Winstead, she was still pretty young. I guessed early 40s.

"Cassie, at least introduce yourself before mauling her," Mr. Winstead laughed.

Mrs. Winstead just smiled and playfully hit her husbands shoulder, "Well I don't need to now cause you just did," she turned back to Happy and I, "are you two sweeties hungry?" I smiled and opened my mouth to reply, but Happy was faster

"Yes, we indeed are." He said, still out of breath from the stairs. He practically dropped my suitcases and made a b-line for the small but comfortable kitchen. I turned to Mr. Winstead, "would it be alright if I put my stuff away first?" He beamed at me and grabbed my two bigger suitcases, "of course, of course! I'll show you your room and just feel free to join us when you're ready!"

I smiled thankfully at him and grabbed my backpack, smaller suitcase, and the mystery suitcase. I followed him down a very short hallway to a room on the right. It was small but neat and clean and the smell that was in the room reminded me of market stores during Christmas time. Mr. Winstead left me to my room, leaving behind a key for privacy. I took a deep breath and plopped down on my new bed. A small smile spread over my face, maybe this won't be too bad after-all

"So what exactly am I supposed to say; Don't worry ma'am! I'll be sure to keep a good eye on your spider Nephew!" I stuck a dorky thumbs up as I rehearsed to Happy, who watching, just gave me a blank stare.

"No. No no, I'll do the talking. Just speak when spoken to, ok?"

"Sounds good to me." For once, I was grateful that Happy was here with me. After a fantastic breakfast with the Winsteads, Happy drove down to Mays house. The closer we got the more my nerves seemed to tense. I couldn't help but imagine that Ms. May was expecting someone stronger and bigger, someone who didn't trip on nothing or have trouble making ramen.

We only drove for about two minutes, they lived really close to the Winsteads, and Before I knew it we were there, standing in front of her door. My heart raced as Happy knocked gently at the door, then it completely stopped beating altogether when Ms. May answered. Her smile was warm but it quickly dissolved into confusion when she saw me. However, she kindly invited us both in and offered us a glass of coffee. Happy took his but I gratefully declined.

I was way to tense to stomach anything right now.

We all sat down in the front living room and after slurping at his coffee for a bit, Happy started speaking "Very nice to meet you Ms. May" he shook her hand but she just stared blankly at me.

Happy continued. "As you know, we're here to provide Peter with a partner who'll help him with missions as well as smaller mishaps on the side." Happy gestured to me "This is Edalyn, she's been training with The Black Widow for 3 years now and is also developing her own abilities in the process. Together, both of the kids could learn and grow, but protect each other when fights get rough."

It sounded like Happy was trying to sell me more than introduce me.

Ms. May looked nervously at me, "Um, sorry. This is really great, really. But I was under the impression that Peter would have more of a uh ...body guard than, a um, 'partner.'" She whispered the last part to Happy.

My heart sank just a bit as I heard the disappointment in her voice. Happy seemed pretty nervous too, Peter was important to Tony and it was up to Happy to make sure everything wen smoothly with Peters Aunt. "Yes, I know she's young but she's strong. She has gone through... experiences that have given her the ability to generate psionic force fields, these can work as force shields," I shuddered at his last sentence, "which would protect Peter the most if he were in a dangerous situation." Ms. Mays eyes widened a bit but she didn't seem to believe what she heard, her eyebrows crinkled together and she tapped her ear, "Sionic what now?"

Happy took a deep breath and was about to start explaining but I interrupted, not wanting to dig into my past, "I can show you if you'd like, just a small example I guess." Not waiting for as answer, I focused all the energy around my hand into a small blade that appeared to be sharp light. I let the blade grow bigger to where it encompassed my hand. I then grabbed a piece of steel from my pocket and tossed it in the air, only to bring my blade down on it, easily slicing it in half. I looked at Ms. May again "though the blade can be sharp, I only use them when necessary. When in battle I am normally working as defense and can protect my partners with shields and barriers." I hadn't been in battle much, but when I had, protecting with my shields was all Natasha would really allow me do.

A silence fell over us as Ms. May stared at the metal that I had sliced. She thought things over and then drew in a deep breath, slapping her hands to her knees. "Well, there's no stopping Peter either way, so if you can forcefully protect him, then I couldn't as for more." She gave me a warm smile and offered me coffee for the second time. My muscles relaxed and I gratefully accepted.

These last couple days, I just had just gone to Ned's house after school, since I wasn't allowed to go out as Spiderman without my unwanted body guard. However, today, I headed strait for home, anxious to see who would be monitoring my every action from this time forth.

After getting off the bus I took off in a light jog until I reached the house.

I swung the front door open and walked in, looking around before I called out to May, "Hey, uh, May? I'm home!" I slipped into the kitchen, dropped my backpack and looked around. No one. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket to see I had a message from May,

May: Hey Pete! I'm out with some friends tonight but the Winsteads invited you over for dinner tonight! Your new partner lives with them now, the address is on the counter, love you!

The Winsteads? Didn't know them. Weird. I looked to the table to find the note May was talking about. The house was only about 2 blocks away from here. I sighed and threw myself onto the couch. This was the worst. I didn't need anyone, for heavens sake I took on the vulture single handedly!

"Ugh"

I pulled myself up again and grabbed my backpack. I took out a couple textbooks and worked on homework until about 6.

Then I grabbed the address and made my way out the door.

The outside air was cool and heavy with humid, it made me was to jump into my suit and swing over the city, but I couldn't do that yet. I wasn't about to disobey May after all work it took to have her agree with me being spiderman at all.

I reached the apartment buildings and made my way up to the 4th floor, apartment number 47. I took in a deep breath and knocked lightly at the door. I heard some chatter on the other side and then silence. I sat there for second, thinking I should knock again, when the door opened.

My heart skipped a couple beats and my eyes widened when a beautiful girl, who looked my age, stood at the door. Her hair reached her lower back in elegant blonde curls. Her skin was tanned, which brought out her bright blue eyes and she had a splash of freckles that were sprinkled across the bridge of her nose.

I was so distracted, I didn't even hear her speaking to me.

"Well you don't have to if you don't want to"

I snapped back to reality, "You are, I-I mean.. I'm sorry, what?"

She laughed and it sounded like soft bells, "I said, would you like to come in?" I could only nod and I stepped in to apartment. I heard a small squeal and the next thing I knew, there was a little woman in front of me, grasping my hand in a surprisingly strong handshake, "I'm so happy you were able to make it! I hope you're hungry because I doubled the recipe just for that growing body of yours!"

The girl laughed again and my heart melted.

"Well, yes erm, I mean, thank you! I'm happy to be here."

I was then greeted by a man, not too much taller then the woman. "That's my wife Cassie Winstead, she loves guests," he chuckled, "my names Brock Winstead but please just call me by my first name."

"Pleased to meet you."

I assumed that this must be the guy that'll be watching me and my every move. I stopped myself from sighing and let Cassie guide me into the kitchen. I sat down across from the freckled girl and smiled at her, "sorry, I didn't catch you name.." she looked up from her plate and gave me a small smile. "My name is Edalyn."

Huh. Interesting name.

"Pretty, well pretty name... and you are too..!" I nervously scratched the back of my neck. Sometimes I said the stupidest stuff. "My names Peter.

Peter Parker."

Edalyn smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes, "I know."

Before I could say anything else, Cassie and Brock brought the food to the table and both sat down. I didn't realized how hungry I was until I saw the food. I thanked them for the meal and dove in. Edalyn just starred at me while I ate, which I gotta admit, it made me pretty uncomfortable. "Ughm" I swallowed my food and looked at Brock, " My aunt and I are very happy you've agreed to... work with me sir. It's kind has been a stressful subject lately and it means a lot to us that you agreed to help."

Brock looked at me with confused look on his face, but then nodded his head, "well we are just excited to get Eddy and you training together, it'll be cool to see you both grow."

I nearly choked.

Cassie panicked and grabbed me some more water.

I looked back at Edalyn in confusion, "her and I? She's my... um... body guard?"

Edalyn snickered under her breath and Cassie answered my question while giving me a water, "no dear, she's more like a peer or partner. You two are both in training and will both need to be looking out for each other."

Wait what? This girl? She didn't look the least bit intimidating, let alone strong enough to take on a small crook.

"Oh awesome" I forced a smile, wondering if it would actually be me taking care of her.

I could already tell he was underestimating me, causing my pride kicked in, controlling my words. "Yes, Stark asked me, knowing that I could get you out of whatever trouble you get yourself into. He told me you do that a lot." Peter stiffened and I smiled.

"Mr. Stark sent you?"

"He sure did, he knew I could protect you when those ATM robberies became too much for you to handle. If you know what I mean." I winked and Peter smiled through a clenched jaw, the day dreamy look he was giving me earlier, was gone.

"Well, I might need to talk to him, it could get too dangerous for a peppy little girl like you. We'll be fighting real criminals, not curling our hair."

Peter widened his eyes by his own words and opened his mouth as though he was going to apologize. But the anger had already begun to boil inside me. I hate being underestimated.

"Ive trained with The Black Widow, I promise you. My hair will be the least of my concerns."

I turned to Brock and Cassie who didn't dare say a word, "Thank you for the meal."

I grabbed my plate, placed it in the sink and headed towards my room.

I was stopped and gentle yet strong hand that grabbed my forearm, only to quickly let go. Peter looked at me nervously with apologetic brown eyes, "hey, I'm sorry. I was just surprised, that's all." He took a step away from me after seeing I wouldn't run away. "Um well have a good night, see you at school tomorrow." He headed back towards the kitchen and I touched my arm where he had grabbed me. I felt a blush tickle my cheeks, but then I remembered school.

I inwardly gagged at the thought of school, "No worries, see you then." I called after him. He turned and gave me a half smile, then sat back down in his chair.

I went in my room and closed the door behind me, sliding my down against it till I reached the floor.

He was a lot taller in person.

 **Hey guys thanks for the follows! It really encourages me to write more! I'm hoping to start making my chapters quite a bit longer, so be patient with the updates!**

 **3 Lea**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey thanks so much for the views! Please comment advice and\or requests!**

A little while after Peter had left, I focused my attention to the mystery case. It was a small carry-on suitcase with a hard cover. I ran my hands along the side of it and found a button at the top and cautiously pressed it. The cased opened on its own, revealing a magnificent suit. I gasped and put a hand to my chest. It was beautiful. The head piece was a detailed head-band like mask. Strong metal ran down the bridge of the nose, extending across the forehead and slightly curving down along the cheek bones. A strong type of light orange glass covered the eyes, the suit itself was also pale orange and Seemed to shimmer in the slightest of light. There was a protective, yet flexible, maroon bands across each joint of the suit, including the waist. Then last but not least, on the back of the suit was a maroon circle, encircling around two white semi circles and another final maroon circle in the middle. I knew what Stark was trying to say. I was a protecter. A type of guardian, and I was to make sure nothing happened to Parker.

A huge grin took over my face, it was pretty much the coolest suit I had ever seen.

I told the Winsteads that I was going to go and try it out, they wished me luck and went to bed.

I eagerly pulled the suit on. The fabric felt weightless and hugged tight to my skin. The maroon bands automatically fitted themselves once the whole body suit was completely on. The only part that was missing, was the head piece. I picked it up with careful hands, as though the wrong movement could break the beautiful mask. But I knew better, this was a Stark suit and it's gonna take a lot more than simple drop to even scratch the suit. However, I couldn't help but to gingerly place the helmet like head-band on my face. The metal seemed to move and connect more fully with my face features. Lights appeared over the goggles and everywhere I looked was scanned by the mask.

I quickly braided my hair back and headed towards my window. Just before I could jump out, I heard Cassie's sing-song voice from down the hall. "Don't forget you have schoooooll!"

I shivered at the thought and hopped out the window. I let myself fall, just until I was a couple feet away from the ground, then I concentrated the energy around me into a beam that took its place under my feet. I smiled and glided forward, each time with a new energy beam under my feet, it felt a lot like ice skating, but better. I took a couple of gliding steps upwards until I reached the rooftop of our apartment complex. Due to the horrifying fact that I had school tomorrow, I didn't plan on staying up late or going too far. I messed with the suit, figuring out all the different ways it can enhance my powers. It mostly stabilized me and strengthened my force fields and barriers. Tony was serious about me protecting Peter. The maroon bands concentrated its own energy so that I could put up a shield or blade without second thought, which was pretty nifty. I tested out my blades and practiced using the pre-made concentrated energy that came from the maroon bands. I stayed on the roof for awhile, getting myself familiar with the suit. I smiled, this was starting to get pretty exciting, I glanced down at the lower left hand corner of my eye glass screen. The small clock read 4:26 a.m.

What? No. Way. I had not been up here that long!

"UGGH"

I quickly returned back to my room, put my suit away and climbed into bed angrily.

I hate school.

I groaned as my 5am alarm started to go off. Being Spider-Man meant that the only time I really had for studies, was early in the morning.

But it was a sacrifice I had to make. I reluctantly got out of my warm bed and drug myself to the bathroom. Lazily, I stripped my PJs and boxers off, and climbed into the shower. The warm water was awakening and fresh to my skin. After washing my hair, I let my mind wonder to Edalyn.

I smiled to myself when I remembered Mr. Winstead calling her Ed for short. It was weird at first but now it was just cute. I liked her freckles too.

I closed my eyes and let my thoughts wonder for a couple minutes more, then after quickly rinsing myself off, I hopped out of the shower. I put on my favorite pun shirt and threw on a green hoodie over it.

I headed back to the bathroom and actually did my hair AND put on cologne AND deodorant. Its Edalyn's first day and I'm pretty sure I'd be the one showing her the ropes. I smiled at the thought.

I worked on homework until it was time to leave. Then, with an apple in my mouth, I shoved my suit into my backpack, gave aunt May a wave, and headed out the door.

Today is gonna be great day.

At least that's what I thought before I heard sirens. I glanced down at my watch. I had time to take care of a small robbery, or whatever it was. I would take care of whatever was going on and then just swing really quickly to school... or at least to nearest alley way to change.

I slipped behind a dumpster and clumsily changed into my suit, then I shot a web to secure my back back and slung myself into the air.

"Karen, where did all those police cars go?"

"The abandoned church building on 2200 E street. There is a man with 3 kids hostage inside."

My mouth went a bit dry, armed men and hostages were hard to deal with.

"Peter, I also must remind you that Mr. Stark does not approve of you working alone anymore. You are to-"

"I know, I know! Just this one time Karen, I don't have time to track down Edalyn and take her to the site! This is serious, I've gotta save those kids"

Karen didn't respond to the comment, but just continually gave me instructions to the old church building.

Once the building was in sight, I kept my swings more discreet and hidden, the last thing I wanted was the criminal to panic and shoot someone. I was closer to the building now and peeked through a couple windows, trying to find where the hostages were being kept. I climbed up to the second floor and peeked in the window. There was nobody there, I double checked again, just to make sure and then I sneaked in.

"Karen, where's he keepin the kids?"

"In the main chapel area on the floor below you"

"Thanks Karen." I whispered and silently made my way to where the hostages were.

Once I got to the chapel area, I peaked in and my heart sank. The criminal seemed to be in his 30s and was holding an alien tech gun, hovering over the 3 terrified kids. They were only about 7 years old, or younger.

The man spoke into a small hand held walkie talkie; "I'm gonna give you all 60 seconds, and with every minute I'm gonna kill one of these kids, until you hand over the money." He must've stolen a police communicating device, and now he was threatening them for money.

While the man was distracted, talking into the walkie talkie, I climbed up the wall, hiding above a light fixture. The man had two different alien tech guns. One of the guns was the same one that took down the sub I went to all the time, but the other one was unfamiliar.

First thing I wanted to do was get the kids out of there and then I cou-

All of a sudden, I slipped. My hand caught the ceiling wrong and tapped against the light directly below me.

"What the-"

The man looked up and saw me. I had to act fast. I shot a web at the guns but he was faster, attaching one to his belt and the other pointed at the three tear stained faces.

"No! Dont!" I shot a web to sling myself at him.

He pulled the trigger.

The flash from the weapon forced me to look away. When I looked back, debris and dust swirled in the air and I couldn't see past a couple feet in front of me.

"NO! Karen, are they- the kids? No this can't be.." I swung to where I remembered the kids being. I squinted, I thought I saw a light. Or beam. As the dust cleared I saw her. Edalyn stood in front of the three kids her hands stabilizing the force field around her. She looked up and made eye contact with me. She said something but it was hard to hear her with the walls of the force field around her. She mouthed it again to me.

"He's getting away"

I swirled around and saw the man with the unfamiliar gun, he shot the wall, but instead of destroying it, it seemed to open some sort of portal.

I charged him, and shot a web as he walked through the wall, but once again, I was too slow. My web connected with a solid wall that was just barely an opening a few seconds ago.

I cursed under my breath.

I turned my attention back to Edalyn and the kids. Her force field was down now and she had one of the younger kids in her arms, the other two clung to her legs. Having more time to take her in, I noticed her suit. She looked amazing in it but I couldn't help but notice that she looked worn out and a bit tired.

Within minutes police and parents were in the building, I gave information about the guns to the police and once all was settled, I left.

Edalyn must have left before me because she was gone when I looked back to where she had been standing.

The day that started out so good, now hung over me like a dark cloud. If Edalyn hadn't been there, those kids would've died and it would've been my fault. Not only that but the shooter got away as well, with two high tech alien guns, one of which could create portals.

Turns out taking down Toomes wasn't enough.

I sighed and headed towards my locker. I put the wrong code twice before I could finally open it.

"Peter! Pete, dude you are never going to believe what happened!"

I turned to see Ned, his face lit up with excitement. I put on my best fake smile, but of course, he saw strait through it.

"Woah man what's up, you don't look too good."

I dropped my head a bit and then looked back up at him,

"I just had some rough spiderman business this morning."

Ned's concern turned into a smirk, and he nodded,

"That's so cool."

"Dude, seriously?" I said, a bit bugged, but I was secretly grateful for his light hearted attitude.

"So what were you so excited to tell me about?"

Ned's face beamed as they walked away from the lockers together

"Oh yeah! I entered one of those super-slim-chance-of-winning contests, and I won!"

"Woah cool man, what'd you win?!"

"A Star Wars Imperial super star Destroyer lego set. 3,208 pieces."

"You won that? That's so awesome!"

"I know right? I was thinking we could work on it today after school since you can't be Spider-Man without your babysitter."

I gave Ned an annoyed look, which he just shrugged to.

"I actually met my PARTNER yesterday. And she helped me out this morn-"

"Wait, she?"

The bell rang before I could explain more.

Ned and I walked to class together and I tried to quickly explain the man with the alien tech guns, especially the portal gun and how Edalyn used some sort of beams to protect the kids. I told Ned about dinner with her and the Winsteads, told him how beautiful she was and about her bold attitude.

"And she's supposed to protect you?" Ned asked in a hushed voice as we took our seats.

I sat up straiter and thought about the question,

"Well, I think we're supposed to protect each other."

Before I could say anything else, the teacher started speaking and class officially started. It was English class so it seemed to drag on a lot longer than any other class.

I watched the clock until it was finally time to head to second period. On the way there Ned and I talked about his new lego set, then I saw her. Edalyn looked exhausted. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and she wore baggy sweats and a hoodie. She had bags under her eyes and she seemed to be in a daze.

"Peter, can you even hear me?"

I ignored his question, "Ned, that's her." Ned followed my stare and laughed to himself, "dude, I thought you said she was beautiful. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's pretty, but she looks like a character off of The Walking Dead."

I chuckled a little and agreed with him, then we parted ways. He headed off to computer tech and I had to get to French. I looked back at Edalyn, she seemed to be struggling with her locker which gave me the perfect opportunity to walk up to her.

"Hey," I said nervously, "I never got the chance to thank you this morning."

She looked at me, her eyes were tired but kind, she moved to the side giving me the slip of paper with the locker code, and let me start dialing it in.

"Don't mention it, I'm just glad I could help."

I opened her locker and she gave me a thankful smile.

I let myself get lost in the possibilities "If you hadn't been there, those kids..."

She turned her whole body towards me, her eyes serious and stern, "don't think about what would've happened, focus on what did happen. We're both safe and all three kids are safe. We're working together now, whether we need to or not." She gave me a playful shove "and with those guns you'll need all the help you can get."

Comforted, I gratefully nodded at her. I was starting to like the idea of having a partner.

The late bell rang and I realized we were the only ones left in the hallway.

"I gotta run, but we need to talk later, could you come over, like after school?"

She gave a tired nod and I smiled

"K well uh, see you then." I started jogging down the hallway and then stopped and jogged back to her. She looked at me, confused and I nervously scratched the back of my head. "Well I was thinking I should probably get your number." I said, handing her my phone.

Edalyn giggled and quickly put her information into my phone. I thanked her and made my way to class, glancing down at the new contact on my phone.

A smile spread across my face as I read the name "Ed" that was brought up on my screen.

Maybe today wasn't too bad after all.

It took everything I had not to fall asleep in chemistry. I had already fallen asleep in my last two class periods and took a nap during lunch too. Plus, this was the first class that Peter and I had together and I didn't want him to see me doze off, that'd be so embarrassing.

I was partnered up with a girl named MJ. She didn't talk with me much, which honestly, I was grateful for. I didn't really feel like talking much today.

Her and I worked well together and by the end of class, I appreciated her dry humor and she laughed at my few snarky comments. I could tell we'd were gonna be friends.

The bell rang right after MJ and I exchanged phone numbers, it felt nice to have a school friend.

Her and I parted ways as Peter and I made our way to math, turned out we had that class together too. Peter did most of the talking, he talked about the math teacher and how she was cool but pretty intimidating. He told me that there was an empty seat by him if I wanted to sit by him, told me I could always ask him for help if I needed to. Then he fell silent as well and looked at me with concern on his face.

"Hey, are you alright? You- well you haven't really said much. Are you more of a quiet type?"

I giggled at that, I definitely was not a 'quiet type.'

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired. I stayed up way too late figuring out my suit." It was the partial truth. In all honesty, my head was starting to hurt and I felt dizzy too.

"Oh yeah! Your suit is way awesome by the way, you've gotta show me more of what you can do later today!"

I smiled at his mood, he seemed a lot happier now than he did earlier this morning.

"Yeah, for sure."

Once we got to class, the teacher introduced me as the new student and I sat in the empty seat that Peter had mentioned earlier. My headache got worse as class drug on. We were given worksheets to do for the remainder of the time, they were pretty easy but I couldn't concentrate enough to do them. I was glad Peter was there, he practically did the work for me, while explaining each step of each problem. I was starting to grow more comfortable around him.

Finally class ended. I survived my first day of school. I was pretty proud of that.

I quickly went into the restroom and popped some Ibuprofen in my mouth, washing it down with sink water.

I looked in the mirror and frowned. I looked awful, I was definitely going to take a little more time getting ready tomorrow.

I walked out of the bathroom to see Peter and his bigger friend chatting with one another as Peter waited for me. His eyes lit up when he saw me come out. I walked up to them and Peter introduced me,

"Edalyn, this is Ned, he knows by the way. Ned this is Edalyn."

I was thrown off by Peters in-between comment. I looked at him, a bit shocked.

"Wait, what do you mean by "he knows?"" Peter simply shrugged, "He knows about Spidey and his new armor." He said, gesturing to me.

His new armor? Was that supposed to mean me? My head throbbed.

"Ok whatever, we'll talk about it later. Are we still going to your place?"

Peter glanced at Ned who shrugged "we'll build the star destroyer another time, I have an essay I need to write."

I held back a laugh from the sudden geek talk.

"Ok cool, don't build it without me this time."

This time I couldn't hold it in, I chuckled to myself but Peter and Ned didn't seem to care. They did a 60 second hand shake and parted ways.

Peters tone got more serious as we walked together, "So I gave a report to Tony about the guy with the alien tech."

He had my attention. "And?"

"Well, he told me that there's been a couple sightings of alien tech throughout the city. I may have shut down the source of it but there's still a lot of dangerous guns out there from the past 8 years Toomes had been selling it."

Peter ran his hand through his hair, which made my heart sputter a bit. Pain surged through my head but I ignored it.

"He wants us to start finding the weapons and collecting them, he said it's our first official mission. Along with keeping the town under control of course." He looked at me with excitement in his eyes.

"We can start searching after school and on the weekends when we get a chance. The sooner we start, the better."

I smiled at his energy and nodded, I wanted to say more but the words didn't make it to my mouth.

I focused on my feet while we walked. My head was swirling with pain, the ibuprofen really didn't do much.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I tried to look up. Everything was spinning.

Peter was saying something but I couldn't hear it, his voice sounded muffled. He took his backpack off and slouched over. Before I could process what he was doing, he guided me to his back, grabbed my legs and picked me up piggy-back style. I wanted to protest against it but I couldn't, so I just leaned against him and closed my eyes. I wrapped my arms around him and turned my head into the nape of his neck. He smelled good.

I'm just so tired. I let my cares go and fell asleep to the smell of Peters hair.

 **Wow, thanks so much for reading! Makes my day! Please leave advice or any other sort of comment you'd like! I'll start working on the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm really enjoying writing this story, I hope you guys are enjoying it too! Let me know if you have any ideas or advice :) I've really appreciated the reviews I've gotten, so thank you so much! Enjoy!**

Peters POV

There was no way I was waiting for a late bus with Edalyn slumped over my back. I could feel the heat radiate off her forehead on my neck, she had a bad fever. Her steady breathing kept my panic down but I was still worried. I should've noticed that she wasn't feeling well earlier and I mentally slapped myself for being so blind when it came to women.

I carried Edalyn to the familiar empty alley by the school, the one I always changed in, and gently laid her down. Without thinking about it, I took a moment to admire her beauty. She didn't have any mascara on, revealing her long, nearly white eyelashes, her freckles appeared darker due to how pale her face had gotten and the hair that escaped her bun was matted to her forehead from sweat.

Ugh. I was such a creep.

I quickly changed into my suit, all the while making sure Edalyn didn't wake up, and secured both of our backpacks with web behind a dumpster.

I returned to her side and carefully bent her over my shoulder, I felt bad but I didn't know how else to hold her and swing at the same time.

I felt her move and mumble something making me panic. I needed to act fast before she woke up.

I exited the alley and used my free hand to shoot webs at buildings, swinging myself to the general direction of Edalyn's home. It was hard at first, since I was only using one hand to shoot and swing, but I quickly got a hang of it. However, after awhile my upper arm got tired from the weight and movement I was forcing on it. Using one arm was a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be.

I had to admit, I was glad to be in the air again, but I could hardy enjoy myself, especially when Edalyn's pale face kept coming to mind. She would kill me if she woke up, slung over my shoulder like a bag of potatoes, but I regretted nothing. This was the fastest way.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the Winsteads home. We landed behind some bushes and I tried to stretch my arm, it was killing me.

While shaking feeling back into my arm, I looked around to make sure there was no passerbys, then I shot a web and swung to the forth floor. I readjusted Ed to where I was carrying her bridal style and tapped on the door with my foot.

While waiting, I thought about how funny this probably looked. Spider-Man, carrying a random passed out girl, waiting outside an apartment door. What a sight.

It was Brock who opened the door. His friendly smile quickly faded off his face when he saw Edalyn and he ushered us inside.

I gingerly set her down on the main couch and then pulled off my mask. I turned to Brock who was immediately at Edalyn's side, and tried to explain myself,

"She looked tired at school today but I didn't know she was sick, I would've brought her home earlier if I knew, I-"

Brock waved me off "Peter, calm down, she's fine, it looks like she got hit in the head by something from this mornings fight, probably debris, and plus lack of sleep and stress, her body just gave out." He looked at me with calm eyes and a gentle smile.

"She'll be up and running within a couple days, don't blame yourself and don't worry too much about it."

I nodded, "how did you know about this morning?" I asked the question carefully.

Brock walked into the kitchen as he talked, "Ed's suit alerts us whenever her heart-rate increases to certain level, or in other words, whenever she's fighting. We can also pull up everything she sees, says and does. The suit will alert us whenever she leaves the city and if we ever wonder where she's at, we can track her by the chip that's installed in her suit."

I sat there for a second, not really knowing what to say, and watched Brock prepare himself some coffee.

"Wow, well, that's cool... I guess."

Brock chuckled, "No, Not really, I don't want her to feel like she's being monitored, like some sort of animal." He sighed, "but, orders are orders, and the last thing Cassie and I want is to be excused from this job."

"Wait," I questioned, "those are all Tony's orders?" It made sense, but it seemed like a bit much.

Brock nodded and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Yep, and we are gonna obey them, even if they're a bit overbearing. You see, Cassie and I, we're spies. Always have been, so we decided a long time ago, that it'd be best not to have kids."

He took a drink before continuing.

"But by the time we realized that we wanted a normal life with a normal family, we knew that it was too late. There are gangs who want us dead and other enemies who want information from us. We're constantly being tracked and it'd be risky to even try to live a normal life. However, Stark found us and offered us this opportunity to care and raise this young girl while keeping her safe and understanding that she has a strange life as well. It just kinda worked. I guess you could say we're an abnormal family."

He looked at me. "You might be wondering why I'm telling you all this."

I kept quiet but nodded.

He took another drink, "I want you to know that we're not doing this for money or for a job. I want you to see that we genuinely care for Ed, she's not a project, and I don't want you to treat her like a project either." Brock put his glass down and leaned against the counter. "She's starting a life here, and if you're gonna be in it, you're gonna be real with her. Not just a partner but a friend. Someone she can turn to, someone she can trust."

He chuckled to himself and stretched his arms above his head, "Oh Cassie was right, I'm a lil over protective. Well. I gotta go get some groceries, Cassie's on a different mission but she'll be home later tonight. If you don't mind, could you stay here with Ed, till she wakes up? I'll phone your aunt and let her know."

I nodded "of course, well I mean yes. Yeah I'll stay. Here. With her.." I stumbled over my words awkwardly.

Brock smiled, "Thanks Pete."

He started out the door and I walked after him, "Thank you, I mean, for telling me. Edalyn's a friend, and I know it's only been a couple days, but she's more than a partner or project to me. She's a friend." I kicked myself for repeating the same sentence, but Brock seemed to understand. He nodded and then waved, shutting the door behind him.

I walked back into the living room and sat on the ground next to the couch that Edalyn was laying on. I looked over her head, turning it gently, and saw the bump that Brock was talking about earlier. It was pretty large but not too serious, debris must've hit her after she let her shield down this morning.

I drew in a deep breath. I wish she would've told me.

My phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my suit and checked it. If was May.

 _May: I heard about this morning from Mr. Winstead, how are you holding up? I'll make your favorite meatloaf and leave it in the microwave so it's warm when you get home._

It buzzed again

 _May: love you!_

I smiled and put my phone on the coffee table, I really hoped Aunt May was handling everything ok.

I turned back to Ed and lightly moved hair out of her face, being careful not to touch the bump on the side of her head.

"Karen, how bad is her head injury?"

"As Mr. Winstead said, it is not major. She just has a mild concussion. The best thing for her to do is to rest with her head slightly elevated above the heart."

"Thanks Karen." I mumbled as I looked around for a pillow. There was none. What house doesn't have a pillow. I got up and peeked into her bedroom and smirked. She was kind of a slob. Her suitcases laid open on the floor and there were clothes strewn about the room. I looked at her bed but the pillows there were bigger than what I was looking for.

I walked back into the living room, just to hear my phone buzz again.

It was an unknown number

 _Unknown: hey Pete, thanks again for watching Ed. Cassie and I are going to be out later than we thought. I don't really want Ed alone in the apartment so I phoned your aunt and she said she'd come pick you two up when ed wakes. Sorry for the hassle. -Brock_

"Huh" I couldn't help but wonder what mission was keeping Cassie and Brock late. And I thought Brock was just getting groceries. Those two were definitely a mystery.

I typed back a quick reply

 _Don't worry about it. Hope you guys are safe._

That last part may have sounded weird but it was true.

Edalyn groaned. I walked back over to her and gently lifted her head. I couldn't find the right type of pillow, so I guess my lap will have to work.

It felt nice to sit down on the couch, my muscles were aching and the floor didn't help much with that.

I lowered her head back down, hoping she wasn't uncomfortable, and allowed myself to finally relax.

Today had been a roller coaster for sure.

My eyelids started to feel heavy and I leaned my head back into the corner of the couch. I took one last look at Ed, making sure she was ok, and then let myself drift off to sleep.

"Peeeterr" Aunt May shook my shoulder

"No school today." I groaned "it's Saturday."

"Peter we're gonna go home. Did you already eat?"

I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus on the face in front of me. Aunt May was crouched by me, softly shaking my shoulder.

That's right

I was still in the Winsteads living room, but now I was the one laying on the couch. I clumsily but quickly sat up.

"Wait, where's Edalyn?"

Aunt May stood up with car keys in her hand

"She's already in the car. She's staying with us tonight."

Aunt May rubbed her forehead, she seemed a little stressed out.

I nodded and stood up, I realized I was still in my suit and that probably didn't help May calm down.

"I'm only in my suit cause I swung Ed home, we didn't do anything else today."

Aunt May gave me a confused look and then smiled, "That's ok Pete. I know you're safe. I guess it just takes some getting used to."

I smiled back at her.

She smirked and handed me a bag, "Mr. Winstead told me you were still in your suit. Go change really quick."

I laughed, "Thanks May."

I walked into the hallway bathroom and stripped off my suit, pulling on a pun shirt and grey sweats, I was pretty happy to finally be out of my suit. I shoved it in the bag and walked back to May.

"Now come on," she shooed me towards the door, "I want to get home and sleep."

I trudged down the stairs and walked to Mays car that was parked in front of the apartment complex. I was going to sit in the front seat but then remembered that Ed was with us too, so I got in the back seat instead.

I opened the back door and froze, I still wasn't used to the sight of her. My heart skipped a dangerous number of beats and I felt my face flush.

Her messy bun was illuminated by the rays of moonlight that trickled in from the window, she must've changed her outfit because she was no longer wearing her school clothes. Instead she had on a loose T shirt and black leggings, she was holding a pack of ice to her head while she played temple run on her phone.

Without even glancing up from her game she said "y'know Pete, staring at people for a long time is kinda creepy. It's not smiled upon by society."

I was glad it was dark because I could feel my face turn beat red. I stumbled into the car and sat down next to her, looking at my hands. I didn't realize how long I must've been looking at her. I really gotta work on that.

Ed nudged my side with her elbow "Hey, I'm just teasing you. Thanks for taking me home, sorry I passed out on you." She laughed to herself and shook her head, "I thought I could make it through the school day, but I guess not."

May got in the car and started it before I could respond. "How's your head feelin, Ed?"

Edalyn smiled "its feeling better, thank you."

And with that we pulled out of the road and headed home. May hummed to the radio as she drove and within 4 minutes we were there.

I quickly got out of the car so I could help Ed if she needed it, but she seemed fine. I walked in silence as Aunt May questioned Ed on how she was feeling and if she needed anything to eat. I looked at my clock, it was 9. That meant we were at the Winsteads for a solid 5 hours. I sighed, there was no way I'd be able to sleep tonight. Once we got in the apartment, May pulled out some meatloaf and my stomach growled loudly. May and Ed both laughed, "Wow Pete, you know you could've eaten some of Cassie's spaghetti." We laughed again.

May dished us both out a plate and got us some milk. "Well, since you two slept the day away I'll just put on a movie and head off to bed," May yawned, "cause I'm exhausted."

"Thank you so much for letting me stay over, sorry for the trouble." Ed smiled at May and May just waved her off,

"No need to apologize, I don't like leaving Peter home alone either." May winked at us and then retired to her room for the night.

I took in a deep breath and looked at Ed, "Well do you have a favorite movie?"

She shook her head.

"Actually, if it's ok, I'd rather not watch a movie. It'd just make my headache come back."

That was true, TV didnt go well with head injuries.

"I want you to tell me about yourself." She simply stated. It surprised me a little bit.

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged, and swallowed her last bit of meatloaf before answering. "Tell me how you got your powers, tell me about Toomes, like how did you take him down? And... well.. what about your parents and stuff?"

I stiffened. These were all the last things I wanted to talk about.

Ed must've noticed because she quickly added "Well, I actually just want to know about your web formula," she nervously looked at her hands, trying to change the subject. "I saw you making it during chemistry and thought it was pretty interesting, how long have you been working on that?"

I plopped myself down on the couch soon to be joined by her next to me. "Well it actually took a lot of trial and error. The first time I made some, the chemical reaction went berserk and overflowed the drawer I had it in." I chuckled, "That was fun to explain to the teachers."

I told her about my web fluids and how I replace them. I explained how I had my home-made suit before the stark suit, I even showed her a picture of me modeling in it from a long time ago, she laughed so hard that there were tears.

I told her about Karen and about the time that I snuck home as Spider-Man, and how Ned was sitting right there while I was on the ceiling. I continued to tell her stories like that and she would laugh, making my heart race.

Soon it was 2 in the morning and we were both on the couch, mumbling stories to each other.

"Well, you already know that I was bit by a spider, but how did you get your powers?"

Eds smile faded a little and she leaned her head against the couch. "My mother. She was a scientist, I was her experiment. Experiment number 6. My siblings before me were unsuccessful."

My heart sank. That was not the answer I was expecting.

"Sorry we don't need to talk about it."

Ed shook her head, "its fine. That's all there really is to it. There's not much else to explain. Just like Toomes, she used alien tech, but instead of combining it with weapons, she combined it with humans."

Questions started swimming in my head, I wanted to know and ask more. But I knew better than to do that.

"I was the only child that could focus the energy and survive radiation, the tech isn't a part of me but it changed me... making it so I can concentrate the energy around me into a solid."

I nodded, trying to understand.

"Ed, I'm so sorry."

She shrugged, "don't be."

Then, without a warning, she leaned over, her head resting on my shoulder. "I don't even remember most of it. I just know because it's what I've been told."

My heart was racing and I hoped that she couldn't hear it. We sat like that for awhile in silence. I was about to say something, but then I realized that she was asleep.

I just blushed for the millionth time.

I leaned more into the couch for support and put my arm around her so that her head was more on my chest rather than on my boney

shoulder.

I never realized how small she was until now. She was a lot shorter than Liz, which I liked. She just seemed so frail and small when she was like this, but in her suit she looked strong and invincible. It was weird to notice the contrast.

Her hair was still tied up in a messy bun, except by this point, half of it had already fallen out. Using my free hand, I attempted to softly pull at the band that was keeping her hair together. After a solid five minutes of struggling, I finally got her hair out, I ran my hand through it, untangling the major knots. Her hair was longer than Liz's, I liked that too.

I thought back to what she said about her Mom, she shared such a personal part of her life with me and I only told her about Ned and Karen, and the funny stories that don't really matter.

I'll tell her next time we talk like this.

Will there be a next time? I looked down at her in my arms, will this ever happen again?

I decided I wasn't going to sleep. I was just going to stay awake and savor the moment.


	5. Chapter 5

Edalyns POV

I ran down the maze of dimly lit halls.

Voices, shouts, screams and whispers chased me as my feet thudded on the stone floors.

Finally, an exit came to view.

I ran faster only to fall further away.

The voices were closer.

A hand grabbed my wrist and I screamed.

I looked at the face of the pursuer. Her lips dripped with a sickening sneer,

"No. 6, don't you know? We're not done with you yet."

My eyes flew open to thick darkness, my breath was raspy and fast. I looked around frantically, the halls were gone and so were the voices.

"A dream," I whispered to myself.

I tried to sit up, but was stopped by an arm wrapped around my side. Right. I was at Peters house.

Feeling a little out of place, I lifted his arm off me and climbed off the couch. Maybe it was the dream, but I for the moment I just wanted to be alone and in some fresh air.

I walked to their small apartment balcony and slid the glass door open quietly. Crisp cool air welcomed my face as I stepped out. I closed the door and leaned against the rail, letting goosebumps tickle up my arms. The wind encircled me and I closed my eyes, listening to the 5:30am traffic and thinking about the past few days.

I was taken from Natasha and put in a small but kind home.

I met a boy. A cute boy.

A cute boy who can shoot webs and climb up buildings.

I have a type of family.

I go to school like a normal girl.

I even had a friend in one of my classes.

I opened my eyes in realization.

I could finally live a semi normal life. A soft laugh escaped my mouth, 'semi-normal' was the key phrase. Alien tech guns, spider-boy, a mother who tested me, a mother-like woman who trains me and a new cookies and vanilla mother. Not too normal, but I like to think I'm getting there.

The sliding door opened behind me and I jumped at the sudden interruption of my thoughts and sighed, I didn't want to talk to Peter too much right now.

Turning around, I was a little surprised when I saw Aunt Mays face instead of Peters. She was holding a cup of something hot in both her hands and had a sweet smile on her face.

"You know, usually when you get a fever, you rest and stay warm." She winked playfully at me but also gestured me to go back inside. I smiled back and walked into the cozy apartment. May handed me one of the steamy cups and wrapped a blanket around me.

"Sorry, I was just getting some air but then got lost in my thoughts." I spoke softly, not wanting to wake Peter.

May did the same as she held her drink close,

"I don't blame you a bit. These last couple of days have been full of change and craziness," she twirled her finger in the air, nervously chuckling to herself, "it's easy to lose track of what's going on in your head."

I nodded in agreement--unsure of what to say-- and sipped on the thick hot cocoa she gave me.

May sighed and looked to Peter, who was sleeping soundly on the couch, "It worries me... him being out there with all those alien tech weirdos."

She turned back to me with serious-business like eyes, causing me to sit up straiter. The sudden change of attitude surprised me.

"Please watch him and do whatever you can to make sure nothing happens to him-"

She paused and looked down, obviously trying to contain her emotions, "of course watch over yourself too, you both need to be safe. It's just... Peter is just all I have right now and.." Mays voice trailed off and I put a reassuring hand on one of her own. "We'll be safe."

That was the only sentence that came to mind but it seemed to be good enough for Aunt May. Her face relaxed and she patted my hand. "I know, I know. I just can't help it! Us Aunts tend to overreact." She forced a laugh and reached for her purse that was sitting on the counter. "Well, I need to head off to work. I texted the Winsteads and told them that Peter would walk you home. You should take a couple days off to recover."

I smiled and nodded, and with that she was giving a final wave and walking out the door.

The hot cocoa gave me a warm feeling inside and the blanket made me drowsy.

I walked back to Peter and cuddled into his arms. I barely knew him but it didn't stop the feeling of refuge that I got when I was around him.

With his arm once again around me, I let myself fall into a different type of sleep. One where I knew I was safe and no dreams came to haunt me.

Peters POV

The clock seemed slower today and Ned seemed even more talkative than usual. I slumped over my desk, listening to the Math teacher rattle on about slopes and points. This stuff was easy. I glanced to Ed's seat, remembering our awkward walk back to the Winsteads Sunday morning.

We didn't say much as we walked back and she seemed to be deep in thought. I offered her another piggy-back ride to lighten the mood but she just gave me a weird look.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Peter Parker, the number one loser.

I sighed and looked back at the board, jotting down notes to take to Edalyn.

Once class got out I checked my phone for messages from Edalyn.

There was nothing.

I had texted her to see if she wanted me to grab her homework from today to bring it to her. I had gathered her homework anyway but was hesitant on taking it over.

"Hey man, you ok? You look slumpish."

I looked over to see Ned walking by me and quirked my eyebrow at him, "slumpish?"

He ignored my remark. "Yeah. Soo, since you can't suit up today, wanna come over and build the star destroyer with me?"

I rolled my eyes, "Hey, just cause Ed can't come with me, doesn't mean I won't go out and do my rounds. Crime doesn't stop just cause Eds sick in bed." The first part was a lie. I was given specific instructions not to go around being Spiderman without my "protecter," which was starting to piss me off.

Ned shook his head. "Mays gonna kill you. Well, I gotta head home. May the force be with you man."

I put Eds papers in my bag, "Yeah, you too."

After Ned was out of view, I changed my direction and headed to an alley.

"I don't need a babysitter," I muttered to myself as I stripped off my clothes in the alley. Nothing felt better than pulling my suit over my head, except for maybe snuggling Edalyn on the couch. I smirked to myself and slapped the front of my suit, instantly causing the fabric to hug tight to my body.

"Hello Peter, I suppose Edalyn is somewhere near."

I ignored Karens comment and climbed to the top of the building next to me.

"K Karen, scan the area. Give me something good." I whipped a web out and started swinging from building to building.

"Scanning. Scan complete. There is a robbery at Pop's Burger on St. James street, a purse burglar on 3450 north, and a spider kid without his sidekick." I chuckled at Karen's snarky comment.

"Ok, keep track of the purse burglar while I settle whatever's going on at Pop's burgers."

And just like that, I broke the rules. I got the money taken from the restaurant and webbed the robber to a table, leaving note of the amount of money he stole. Then Karen led me to a guy who was rummaging through the purse he had just stolen. I webbed him to the wall, leaving yet another note, and returned the purse back to a sweet older woman.

I shot a text to aunt May, telling her I was with Ned, which kinda played at my guilt strings but it was just for today.

The rest of the night I continued making rounds, looking out for the little guys, just doing my friendly neighborhood Spiderman thing.

Around 7:30 I swung back to my alley, where I had very securely webbed my backpack, and pulled it over my shoulders. Tightening the straps, I shot out a web and started the journey to the Winsteads.

Edalyn still hadn't texted me, so I was just going to leave her homework on her porch or something.

As I swung by, I noticed that Edalyns window was open. Perfect! I would just place the homework inside and swing away.

I flung myself to the rooftop, and using my web as a rope, I lowered myself down to her open window. White curtains were gently blowing against the wind and just like the day before, her room was a mess. A smile crept onto my face and I peeked in. Edalyn was slumped over a small desk in the room, asleep, with a book in hand. She was absolutely beautiful, even with the bit of drool that was coming from her mouth. I pulled myself closer to the window and started climbing through, I couldn't leave her like this, it looked extremely uncomfortable. I took her homework and my step-by-step math notes out of my backpack and placed it on her desk. Then I gathered Ed into my arms and carried her bridal style to her bed. I gently pulled the blankets over her small frame and checked the goose-egg on her head, it was smaller which was good. Then I headed back to the window and snuck out, closing it behind me.

Once I got to my own apartment complex, I climbed through my own window and quickly changed before Aunt May knew I was here. It kinda felt like the days when Aunt May didn't know I was Spiderman and I'd sneak home every night. Lastly, I ate food, worked on homework and got into bed.

I checked my phone one last time and then let the weight of the day take over, quickly falling to sleep.

The next two days went the same way. Wake up, go to school, text Edalyn, suit up, do my rounds, check my phone, be upset cause Ed would never reply, and take homework to the Winsteads house. Edalyn's window was always open and she was always passed out asleep either on the desk with a book or on the floor with a drawing pad. And just like Monday, I would pick her up, put her in bed and leave her homework on her desk.

On Thursday she came back to school. Matter of fact, she walked right up to me. Her stride was serious and her face was pinched in annoyance. I gulped. This is what I get for being a creep and climbing through her window.

Once she got to me she slammed a newspaper onto the lockers and pointed at them, "'Spiderman saves Pop's Burgers,' what a great headline. Except, you know what? There's a problem. He was alone, there was no one with him, just Spiderman."

I couldn't help but to be be relieved that this wasn't about me climbing through her window these last 3 nights. However I was a bit annoyed that she was even frustrated about me helping people on my own. She wasn't there and I wasn't just going to be a bystander.

"Oh, weird that you bring that up. Last time I checked, Spiderman worked alone."

Her eyes narrowed and she inched closer to my face to where only I could hear her.

"The only reason I'm here is to watch you so that your Aunt will allow you to be Spider-Man. Tony went as far as hiring spies to be my 'parents' and giving me a suit, just so I could keep an eye on you. This isn't about you, Peter. This is about your Aunt, if you don't do it for Tony then do it for her."

She angrily whipped the news paper to her side and walked away, throwing the paper in the nearest trashcan.

I sighed. I hated that she was right, but what was I supposed to do if someone was being mugged in an alley right next to me? What do I do if there's a bank break in? I will not just stand by. I shut my locker, a little harder than I meant, and headed to my first class.

The first half of school went by moderately quickly, and at lunch I just ranted to Ned about Edalyn.

"She's acting like she's in charge of me! And like I get if she's there to ease Mays conscience but I'm not going to sit and do nothing just cause she's not there to observe."

Ned was biting into a chicken wing and nodding in all the right places,

"Sooo what are you gonna do?"

I sighed and picked up my milk.

"I'm gonna call Happy. If he answers, I'll try to get him to side with me and hopefully he'll let me talk to Tony."

Ned smirked, "That's so cool you can just call up Tony Stark for no reason."

I took a couple gulps of milk before I replied," I have a reason."

"No good reason," Ned quickly corrected himself. "Look man, I think that you should just go with it. Like you said to me before, May can't handle you being Spiderman, she's gone through enough. But maybe she can handle you being Spiderman with a hot guardian angel."

I chuckled to myself and finished off my milk, Ned was right but it still wasn't sitting well with me.

When the bell rang, Ned and I did our handshake and I made my way to Chemistry. I walked in to see Ed showing MJ her book, they both looked sincerely interested and in deep conversaition about what was being read. Ed caught my stare and looked up, I tried to send a smile her way but she just turned back to MJ. I guess she was still pretty frustrated. I sat behind them in class and tried to focus on the new web formula I was working on, but it was hard to concentrate when I could smell Ed's coconut sented hair from where I was sitting.

I snapped back into focus when I heard the teacher announce, "Ok class, today I'm assigning new lab partners. Letting you pick your own is not an option anymore due to your non stop chatter."

The whole class groaned and I panicked. Larry, my lab partner, never even cared to talk to me, or even look at me, which made it easy to work on my web fluid.

The teacher started reading off names and I listened for mine.

"Michelle and Phillip. Flash and Ericka. Peter and Larry," I sighed in relief. "Edalyn and Ben..." I stopped listening, gathered my things and walked over to my new desk. Larry didn't seem to mind that he had the same partner, he just walked over to me and reorganized his side of the desk, not saying a word to me. Perfect.

I heard Edalyns sing-song-like laugh behind me and I couldn't help but to turn around to see her and her new partner.

She was with Ben Fryer, the major flirt. Great. He said something to her and she giggled again, tossing her hair over her shoulder. I had to admit, she looked gorgeous compared to the other day when she was sick at school.

After I realized I was staring, I quickly turned back around.

I heard her perfect laugh throughout the rest of class making it even harder to finish Web Fluid version 3.02. I sighed, tucking it away in the drawer next to me, I would have to work on it during lunch or something.

After an hour and 20 minutes of torture, the bell rang. I threw my stuff in my backpack and nervously turned around to walk up to Edalyn. She was exchanging numbers with Ben.

Double great.

I took a deep breath and walked over to her, "H-hey Ed, I just wanted to apologize about earlier to-"

She cut me off with a smile, "Don't be sorry Peter, why dont you meet me outside school today and we can both go over to my house and talk about it."

I couldn't help but smile at the look on Ben's face, but I didn't understand Ed's sudden change of mood and I definetly didnt want to wait a whole class period to find out, "yeah, ok sounds good. I'll see you in math." She nodded and continued to gather her stuff.

In math class Ed passed me a note

I got an update on my suit, and I think it'll help with our problem.

I wrote back

What do you mean?

It's an update that'll alert me whenever you're in danger

What if you don't have your suit?

It'll alert my watch. I'll show you at my house.

I nodded at her and felt relieved that we were resolving this.

After the first half hour of class our teacher handed out our work sheets and Ed scooched her desk close to mine.

"Hey, I forgot to say thanks for the homework and notes. Brock always left them on my desk for me and it's really helped me stay caught up."

I froze. She thought it was Brock who brought in her homework, put her in bed and shut her window, "y-yeah. No problem."

We worked together for the remainder of class and when the bell rang we took the bus to her house.

While on the bus I decided to spark up a conversation, "So Ben looks like a good lab partner."

Why did I bring that up?

Her face beamed, which bugged me, "Yeah! He's way funny and he even asked for my number!"

I was already starting to regret this conversation, "oh cool." I grumbled.

Once we got to her house and fought off Brock and Cassie's how-was-your-day questions, we went into her room to talk about the update. Surprisingly, her room was clean and organized. She flopped onto her bed and I sat at her desk.

"So. The update pretty much notifies me if your in danger or if there's something dangerous around you. Stuff like that. So you can do your rounds or whatever and I'll only come into the picture if I need to. So you're still basically working alone."

I flinched at that last part, regretting what I had said to her earlier that day,

"Oh, cool."

Edalyn rested her head on the back wall and shrugged, "I know you don't like it, but that's why I'm here, to protect."

I didn't like the idea of someone 'protecting' me, especially when that someone is a girl, but this is what Edalyn was supposed to do and I needed to make peace with it.

I nodded and looked at my hands, wishing we could be more like friends instead of partners, "Hey, I know what I said earlier but I don't mind you being with me. E-especially if we're hanging out, like, if you want, we could go out on Saturday and-"

I was interrupted when Brock opened the door and peeked his head in, "hey, do you two need anything? Cassie and I gotta head out for the night."

We both looked at eathother and shook our heads. Edalyn replied, "No but thanks, oh and Brock, thanks so much for bringing my homework in and helping me get in bed the last couple nights, I'm going to try not to fall asleep on the ground anymore."

She laughed but Brock just gave her a confused look and my heart stopped beating all together. "What do you mean? Cas and I leave in the evenings and we're not home till around 5am."

Edalyn's face paled and she seemed to panic for a moment but then she looked at me and knitted her eyebrows together. My face must've said it all because she told Brock to nevermind and the annoyed look from this morning returned to her face.

I wanted Brock to save me but he just shrugged.

He left and Edalyn looked at me with half amused and half irked eyes,

"So, what's our creepy Spider been up to these last couple of nights?"

Thanks so much for the favs!! They make my week!!! Sorry that this chapter is a slight filler but there'll be more action in the next one!

3 Lea


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